Is microneedling permanent for scars? Or will they eventually resurface?

A combination approach will give the most improvement. Acne scars need a combination of microneedling/prp with lasers, Cosmelan, subcision and fillers. It will take a series of treatments and may need life-long treatments to maintain. I recommend getting a formal evaluation with an acne scarring expert. Best, Dr. Emer

Thank you for your question, Microneedling is a good option for the improvement of acne scars and is usually permanent. Its recommended you do a series of treatments for best results and yearly maintenance may be needed as well. As always consult a medical professional before beginning any treatments to determine what procedure is best for you. 

MIcroneedling can remodel scars in a few ways, firstly via epidermal cytokines that help with the dermal scar, secondly it causes dermal remodelling through your immune system to lay down collagen, elastin and other support structures, thirdly it can physically break down your scar tissue. In this context it is permanent IMPROVEMENT in that scar. One should however for see natural collagen degeneration over time, this can make scarring look worse, but fillers or energy devices at that stage can help restore natural and not scar related collagen loss.Acne scar revision is a sub-specialised field. For the best results, one should target the acne scar type with ideal treatments and not just one device. The web reference below will take you to a resource to help you understand acne scar revision at a specialist level. I embedded all the videos in one page to help.

For example deep ice pick scars, and narrow box car scars can be treated with TCA CROSS peels, mixed scars, rolling, and atrophic scars treated with fractional devices such as Fraxel, fractional lasers, PRP and INFINI - Intensif radiofrequency. Atrophic scars (depressions) can be treated with either fat grafts, or with HA dermal fillers. Tethered and anchored scars are best treated with surgical techniques such as subcision. Other surgical techniques that we use include punch elevation, surgical elevation, punch excision and traditional excision of focal scars.
The majority of patients will have a collection of different scar types, and hence a tailored treatment METHOD will be best. Careful examination, especially under angled lighting with scar mapping will give you an understanding of what are the best options for your scars. In the majority of patients its finding the correct combination that give you best results, and everyone is unique! All the best,

Dr Davin Lim. Acne scar dermatologist specialist. Brisbane, Australia.